The Teutonic Order is a Catholic religious institution founded as a military society c. 1198 in Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem. The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem was formed to aid Christians on their pilgrimages to the Holy Land and to establish hospitals. Its members have commonly been known as the Teutonic Knights, having historically served as a crusading military order for supporting Catholic rule in the Holy Land and the Northern Crusades during the Middle Ages, as well as supplying military protection for Catholics in Eastern Europe.
Purely religious since 1810, the Teutonic Order still confers limited honorary knighthoods. The Bailiwick of Utrecht of the Teutonic Order, a Protestant chivalric order, is descended from the same medieval military order and also continues to award knighthoods and perform charitable work.
Name
The name of the Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem is in German: Orden der Brüder vom Deutschen Haus der Heiligen Maria in Jerusalem and in Latin Ordo domus Sanctae Mariae Theutonicorum Hierosolymitanorum. Thus the term "Teutonic" echoes the German origins of the order (Theutonicorum) in its Latin name. German-speakers commonly refer to the Deutscher Orden (official short name, literally "German Order"), historically also as Deutscher Ritterorden ("German Order of Knights"), Deutschherrenorden ("Order of the German Lords"), Deutschritterorden ("Order of the German Knights"), Marienritter ("Knights of Mary"), Die Herren im weißen Mantel ("The lords in white capes"), etc..
The Teutonic Knights have been known as Zakon Krzyżacki in Polish ("Order of the Cross") and as Kryžiuočių Ordinas in Lithuanian, Vācu Ordenis in Latvian, Saksa Ordu or, simply, Ordu ("The Order") in Estonian.
History
The fraternity which preceded the formation of the Order was founded around 1190 in Acre by German merchants from Bremen and Lübeck during the siege of Acre, as part of the Third Crusade to the Holy Land. In 1191, they took over a hospital in the city in order to take care of the sick and began to describe themselves as the Hospital of St. Mary of the German House in Jerusalem. Pope Clement III approved it and the Order started to play an important role in Outremer (the general name for the Crusader states), controlling the port tolls of Acre. In 1211, during the second, much weaker Crusader kingdom in the Holy Land, but still long before its final demise in 1291, the Order was "invited" to the Burzenland (southeastern Transylvania) to help defend the southeastern borders of the Kingdom of Hungary against the Cumans. The Order asked German planters to help build up settlements to provide support. As the Order pushed back the invaders, the settlements expanded. King Andrew II of Hungary became concerned he was losing influence. So, in 1225, after Pope Honorius III's papal bull claiming his authority over the Order's territory in Transylvania and its tax exemption toward the king, Andrew expelled the Order.
The Order's next assignment concerned Konrad I of Masovia, who was settling a frontier around Prussia, a region named for the Old Prussians who lived there. Konrad was unable to stop the Prussian raids and the Dobrzyń knights he had gathered for this purpose were defeated, in 1228. So, in coordination with the Holy Roman Empire and Konrad, the Grand Master Hermann von Salza and his Teutonic Order arrived in the region, in 1230. Along with Konrad's forces, the Order pushed back the Prussian tribes and began to push further to conquer and Christianize them.
Through the Golden Bull of Rimini and Treaty of Kruszwica, the Order asserted its claims to the territory that was now secure, the Chełmno Land (also: Ziemia Chełmińska or Kulmerland). From this, the Order created the independent State of the Teutonic Order, to which conquered territory was continuously added. Through the incorporation of the Livonian Brothers of the Sword and further crusading, the added territory included Livonia. Over time, certain kings and dukes of Poland would challenge the Order's land claims, specifically Chełmno Land and, later, Pomerelia (also Pomorze Gdańskie or Vistula Pomerania), Kuyavia, and Dobrzyń Land.The Teutonic Knights in Gargano, particularly between the 13th and 15th centuries, had their main center in San Leonardo di Siponto (Manfredonia), transforming it into a powerful preceptory for the reception of pilgrims and crusaders heading to the Holy Land and the sanctuary of Saint Michael in Monte Sant'Angelo. They governed these lands for centuries, building hospices, churches, and defensive structures.
Following the Christianization of Lithuania, the Order State was no longer crusading. It was instead recruiting planters from the Holy Roman Empire and a fighting force to augment feudal levies. There were also wars against the Kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the Novgorod Republic. Through its control of port cities and trade, specifically with the Hanseatic League, the Order State built up its economic base. The Order State also built ships and had a naval presence in the Baltic Sea. In 1410, a Polish-Lithuanian army decisively defeated the Order State and broke its military power at the Battle of Grunwald. However, the Order State successfully defended its capital in the following Siege of Marienburg (Malbork) and was saved from collapse.
In 1515, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I made a marriage alliance with Sigismund I of Poland-Lithuania. Thereafter, the empire did not support the Order against Poland. In 1525, Grand Master Albert of Brandenburg resigned and converted to Lutheranism, becoming Duke of Prussia as a vassal of Poland. Soon after, the Order lost Livonia and its holdings in the Protestant areas of Germany. The Order did keep its considerable holdings in Catholic areas of Germany until 1809, when Napoleon Bonaparte ordered its dissolution and the Order lost its last secular holdings.
However, the Order continued to exist as a charitable and ceremonial body. It was outlawed by Nazi Germany in 1938, but re-established in 1945. Today it operates primarily with charitable aims in Central Europe.
The Knights wore white surcoats with a black cross. A cross pattée was sometimes used as their coat of arms; this emblem was later used for military decoration and insignia by the Kingdom of Prussia and Germany as the Iron Cross. The motto of the Order was: "Helfen, Wehren, Heilen" ("Help, Defend, Heal").
Foundation 1143–1192
In 1143, Pope Celestine II ordered the Knights Hospitaller to take over management of a German hospital in Jerusalem, which, according to the chronicler Jean d'Ypres, accommodated the countless German pilgrims and crusaders who could neither speak the local language nor Latin (patriæ linguam ignorantibus atque Latinam). Although formally an institution of the Hospitallers, the pope commanded that the prior and the brothers of the domus Theutonicorum (house of the Germans) should always be Germans themselves, so a tradition of a German-led religious institution could develop during the 12th century in the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
After the loss of Jerusalem in 1187, some merchants from Lübeck and Bremen took up the idea and founded a field hospital for the duration of the Siege of Acre in 1190, which became the nucleus of the order; Pope Celestine III recognized it in 1192 by granting the monks Augustinian Rule. However, based on the model of the Knights Templar, it was transformed into a military order in 1198 and the head of the order became known as the Grand Master (magister hospitalis). It received papal orders for crusades to take and hold Jerusalem for Christianity and defend the Holy Land against the Muslim Saracens. During the rule of Grand Master Hermann von Salza (1209–1239) the Order changed from being a hospice brotherhood for pilgrims to primarily a military order.
The Order was founded in Acre, and the Knights purchased Montfort Castle, northeast of Acre, in 1220. This castle, which defended the route between Jerusalem and the Mediterranean Sea, was made the seat of the Grand Masters in 1229, although they returned to Acre after losing Montfort to Muslim control in 1271. The Order received donations of land in the Holy Roman Empire (especially in present-day Germany and Italy), Frankokratia, and the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, elevated his close friend Hermann von Salza to the status of Reichsfürst, or "Prince of the Empire", enabling the Grand Master to negotiate with other senior princes as an equal. During Frederick's coronation as King of Jerusalem in 1225, Teutonic Knights served as his escort in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre; von Salza read the emperor's proclamation in both French and German. However, the Teutonic Knights were never as influential in Outremer as the older Knights Templar and Knights Hospitaller.
Teutonic Order domains in 13th century Levant were as follows
- In the Kingdom of Jerusalem:
- Montfort Castle (Starkenberg), 1220–1271; inland from Nahariya in Northern Israel
- Mi'ilya (Castellum Regis), 1220–1271; near Montfort
- Khirbat Jiddin (Judin), 1220–1271; near Montfort
- Cafarlet, 1255–1291; south of Haifa
- the Lordship of Toron and Lordship of Joscelin in Northern Israel and Southern Lebanon, both owned by the Teutonic Knights 1220–1229 but under Muslim rule during that period. The Knights retained Maron, a vassal of Toron, after 1229, and in 1261 acquired another Toron-Ahmud, another vassal lordship. They also leased (1256) and bought (1261) the stronghold of Achziv (Casale Umberti, Arabic Az-Zīb) on the coast north of Nahariya.
- the Lordship of the Schuf, an offshoot of the Lordship of Sidon, 1256–1268; inland from modern Saida in Lebanon
- In the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia:
- Amouda, 1212–1266; near modern Osmaniye, Turkey
- Düziçi (Aronia), 1236–1270s; near Amouda
Transylvania, Kingdom of Hungary, 1211 onward
In 1211, Andrew II of Hungary accepted the services of the Teutonic Knights and granted them the district of Burzenland in Transylvania, where they would be exempt from fees and duties and could administer their own justice. Andrew had been involved in negotiations for the marriage of his daughter with the son of Hermann, Landgrave of Thuringia, whose vassals included the family of Hermann von Salza. Led by a brother called Theoderich or Dietrich, the Order defended the south-eastern borders of the Kingdom of Hungary against the neighbouring Cumans. Many forts of wood and mud were built for defence. They settled new German peasants among the existing Transylvanian Saxon inhabitants. The Cumans had no fixed settlements for resistance, and soon the Teutons were expanding into their territory. By 1220, the Teutonics Knights had built five castles, some of them made of stone. Their rapid expansion made the Hungarian nobility and clergy, who were previously uninterested in those regions, jealous and suspicious. Some nobles claimed these lands, but the Order refused to share them, ignoring the demands of the local bishop.
After the Fifth Crusade, King Andrew returned to Hungary and found his kingdom full of resentment because of the expenses and losses of the failed military campaign. When the nobles demanded that he cancel the concessions made to the Knights, he concluded that they had exceeded their task and that the agreement should be revised, but did not revert the concessions. However, Prince Béla, heir to the throne, was allied with the nobility. In 1224, the Teutonic Knights, seeing that they would have problems when the Prince inherited the Kingdom, petitioned Pope Honorius III to be placed directly under the authority of the Papal See, rather than that of the King of Hungary. This was a grave mistake, as King Andrew, angered and alarmed at their growing power, responded in 1225 by expelling the Teutonic Knights, although he allowed the ethnically German commoners and peasants settled here by the Order to remain and these became part of the larger group of the Transylvanian Saxons. Lacking the military organization and experience of the Teutonic Knights, the Hungarians failed to replace them with adequate defence against the attacking Cumans. Soon, the steppe warriors would be a threat again.